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Amel Guellaty’s “Where The Wind Comes From” (2025) circles two young people bursting with dreams that transcend their circumstances. Alyssa (a sparkling, pert Eya Bellagha) and Mehdi (Slim Baccar) are close friends, struggling to stay content in a pocket of Tunisia where aspirations aren’t allowed to be spectacular. There are limits staring in one’s face. The two have their gaze fixed on a visa that can sail them out of Tunisia and drop them on the shores of brighter possibilities.
Alyssa is free-spirited and determined to grab any shot at breaking out. She also has to look after her young sister with their mother having emotionally disappeared from their lives. Mehdi, a budding artist, is warier, reserved, and uncertain in embracing unpredictability while she leaps into it. An art contest down south posits a chance to redesign their lives. She never holds herself back if she spots something that can bring her joy, a new kind of living. She’s not shy of going for it. He balks. She pulls him in on the adventure of seeking wish fulfillment. The way is chaotic and riddled with opposition. Hurdles pop up at the get-go.
There’s the transport strike which they have to contend with. How do they even reach Djerba? Using her quick wit, Alyssa steals a car. It belongs to the neighborhood’s most notorious thug. This doesn’t matter to her at all. All she knows is they must make it in time for the contest, which can take them, or at least one of them, several steps nearer a life beyond the tight regulations of Tunisia. Whatever it takes, any curveball the road throws at them, at least she is fully prepared.
“Where The Wind Comes From” is propelled by the absolutely lovely energy between the lead pair. Eya Bellagha taps a vivacity and boundless hunger for freedom, gently contrasting with a more muted expression of the same hunger in Slim Baccar’s Mehdi. Bellagha displays spunk and restrained vulnerability in equal measure. The two summon the kind, non-judgmental understanding of great friends. The language of desire and ambition evades neither. So each can perfectly grasp the other’s reach for happiness in shared moments of immediate, striking candor. Neither questions it. Alyssa pushes him to dream bigger, not to give up which he hovers close to. He is skeptical, she is heedlessly idealistic. She’s the reckless dreamer whose pursuit isn’t bent by practical considerations. Alyssa thinks on her feet, defying all stabs at giving up. She inhales life with full gusto and no apology.
The journey turns them towards desires greater than they could ever have fathomed. Triumphing isn’t so essential as strengthening a resolve to keep at one’s dream. Occasionally surges of surreal invention interrupt the fabric of the characters’ observations. It provokes bafflement and amusement alike. When Alyssa puts up at a posh relative’s place for the night, she’s struck by the absurdity with which cash flows easily, juxtaposed with the sheer direness back home. Alyssa and Mehdi are so used to strained resources that this feels like a whole new world.
But they also run against prejudiced notions. They are reassured about their relatives being completely open-minded about their relationship, which is presumed to be received with hostility back home. Here, they need not worry. People are not so uptight and conservative. The two register the reassurance with mildly concealed amusement. One has to deal with so many projections and perceptions, beyond the material reality.
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“Where the Wind Comes From” resists the bleakness of its reality for upbeat energy. The two face a slew of obstacles but they have enough brio and zeal to charge through it all. If one, Mehdi, demurs, he too gets a lease of hope from Alyssa. It’s the start of recognizing something in himself. The film distills this gathering of self-belief with spry, light touches. The closing notes are a tad rushed but there’s enough charm and vibrance here.
